New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Nashville-based quintet Birdtalker will release their anticipated debut album One on June 22nd. It will be the group's first full-length record following the success of their song "Heavy," a streaming phenomenon which has amassed over 21 million streams on Spotify alone (and counting) with no label support. The weightiness of the song's weightlessness captivated listeners who discovered the song, bringing the freshly intrigued out to see Birdtalker on their first tour recently, and whetting appetites for their full-length debut.
Fronted by couple Zack and Dani Green, Birdtalker have cultivated a special connection with their listeners through their blend of pulsing Americana/folk/pop, honest lyrics, and breathtaking harmonies. Today they released their new single "Outside The Lines," debuted by Billboard who called it a "gentle, harmony-laden folk song."
"It's sort of a snapshot of a period of deconstruction and having a lot of open-ended questions," Dani told Billboard of the song. "It feels pretty open-handed and like it asks a lot of questions and sort of targets mainstays or institutions, things that are kind of an unquestioned part of your life - until you decide to start questioning them. So it feels like a lot of questions, with a little bit of resolve."
Culling their name from an anecdote about St. Francis of Assisi's ability to converse with sparrows, Birdtalker's path to formation was, much like the success of "Heavy," hardly planned out. "Neither of us were in bands before we started this one," said Dani. The Greens figured out they had some harmonic alchemy early in their relationship, but neither had performed music in public before, even solo, much less imagined starting a band. Zack admits he hadn't even been much of a music lover growing up, but suddenly found himself exposed to a whole new world of music in his 20s. He began drifting towards emotionally intent acts while writing songs with his similarly newly muse-stricken spouse. In Birdtalker, you hear a combination of that utter lack of guile with the kind of songcraft it's hard to believe hasn't been cultivated from birth.
Eventually, drummer Andrew Hubright, guitarist Brian Seligman, and bassist
Jesse Baker drifted in, all careful not to talk too frequently or blatantly about incorporating as a group. Voice memos of song demos were produced, and suddenly they were a band, in everything but name or confessed intent. "We were very unintentionally doing what we were doing," laughs Dani. "Looking back, Brian and Andy had more of a vision for what we should be doing, and were probably very frustrated that they were dragging us along into becoming a band." All's well that ends collectively.
Birdtalker's lead single "Free Like A Broken Heart" is also out now which Rolling Stonecalled a "satisfying new song, which has a loose playfulness not often heard in Americana...It's infectious and sprightly, proof that songs about hardship needn't always be dour."
Track List:
01) Ankle Bone
02) Nothing's Right
03) Looking For Love
04) Outside The Lines
05) Autodomesticated Animal
06) Free Like A Broken Heart
07) Be Where You Are
08) Heavy
09) Medea
10) Take It Slow
